There haven’t been many teams in the country that are quite are difficult to get a grasp on as No. 14 Ohio State.

Early on, it seemed pretty simple, frankly.

With Aaron Craft being forced into being the second-option for Thad Matta’s club on the offensive end of the floor, Ohio State looked like they were a team that was, more-or-less, a one-man show. On the nights that Deshaun Thomas was hot, Ohio State probably had enough firepower to compete with anyone in the country and beat their fair share of good teams. On the nights he was off, OSU fans had to hope and pray that someone — anyone — else stumbled their way into a rhythm, be it Lenzelle Smith, LaQuinton Ross or Craft himself.

As the Big Ten season progressed, that theory appeared to be confirmed. The Buckeyes beat a couple good teams at home, had some ugly performances on the road, and looked every bit the part of a team destined to be a five or a six-seed come Selection Sunday. A 22 point loss to Wisconsin on February 17th, which was Ohio State’s third loss in four games, appeared to be the clincher.

But Thad Matta has turned this team around.

It started with a dominating, 26 point win home over Minnesota. It continued with an impressive home victory against then-No. 4 Michigan State. And after an ugly road performance at Northwestern, it was capped last night, as the Buckeyes went into Assembly Hall and dominated No. 2 Indiana on the defensive end, filling the biggest hole on their NCAA tournament profile in the most impressive fashion possible.

All it took was two weeks, and the Buckeyes look like a team that might be able to string together four wins in the NCAA tournament.

The biggest reason?

Deshaun Thomas, but not the way that you might think.

The Buckeyes are currently on a four-game winning streak and playing their best basketball of the season, yet they are doing it while Thomas has run into a bit of a slump on the offensive end of the floor. Over those four games, Thomas is shooting 35.4% from the floor and 21.7% from three while watching his scoring dip to 17.5 points in that stretch, down from 20.1 points in the first 25 games.

It’s not like Thomas is being used any less. He averages 16 FG’s on the season, and took exactly that number in three of the four games. He took 17 shots on Tuesday night. His usage rate has actually gone up, from 27.2% on the season to around 29% in those four games.

Deshaun Thomas has still been Deshaun Thomas, he’s just been bad Deshaun Thomas.

And Ohio State is still winning.

Why?

Well, it’s in large part due to their vaunted defense, which is playing as well as it has all season long. They’ve stymied three of the Big Ten’s four best offenses — and three of the nation’s top 25 offenses, according to Kenpom.com — during that stretch. They’ve also been getting some terrific play out of Aaron Craft, who looked every bit an all-american against the Spartans and the Hoosiers.

Thomas is too talented to be in a slump forever. Craft is too much of a [insert typical cliche used for media darlings here] not to show up in March. And Ohio State’s defense, which ranks 12th nationally, is always going to be tough to score on.

Eamonn Brennan of The Athletic joined Rob Dauster for an epic, two-hour podcast on the first weekend of the tournament. It was so good that we had to split the podcast into two parts. On this show, the two go through everything that happened in the South and West Regions, from Sister Jean to UMBC to Nevada’s comebacks to Kentucky’s chances at a Final Four.

On this show, the two go through everything that happened in the East and Midwest Regions, from Villanova and Duke steamrolling to Michigan State collapsing to Syracuse and Clemson and Texas Tech and Purdue. It’s all in there.

6. TY JEROME DOESN’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR DUMB QUESTIONS

Having to answer questions from a bunch of reporters after suffering the most humiliating moment of your life is not an easy thing to do. Having to answer ridiculous and stupid questions could be intolerable, which is why I loved Ty Jerome’s response to a stupid question he was asked:

The worst-kept secret in college basketball no longer appears to be a secret: Penny Hardaway is going to be the next coaching at the University of Memphis.

ESPN is reporting that a deal has been agreed upon. The Memphis Commercial-Appeal is reporting that Penny was waiting for his season to end with East High School before he made anything official. NBC Sports can confirm that an announcement is expected to be made early this week, likely as soon as Tuesday, to introduce the former Memphis and NBA star as Tubby Smith’s replacement.

The truth, however, is that we all knew this was what would be happening the second that Memphis formally fired Tubby Smith. Hell, we knew it a month before that decision was made final. This was always how it was going to play out.

What’s interesting to me is now the discussion of whether or not Penny will be able to handle being a Division I head coach, because it’s been hit or miss with basketball programs hiring legends of their past. Chris Mullin and St. John’s hasn’t exactly gone to plan but Fred Hoiberg was quite successful at Iowa State. Kevin Ollie won a title with UConn then fell off a cliff. Patrick Ewing’s start wasn’t great, but he was better than expected.

Hardaway isn’t a guy who woke up one morning and decided he’d like to be a Division I head coach. He’s not a former player who got bored with retirement and decided he’d like to do something other than play golf.

Hardaway started coaching at middle school. Middle school! Because an old friend needed some help.

Then he built one of the best AAU programs in the country. Then he spent years coaching a high school team.

Does that sound like someone who doesn’t want to roll up his sleeves and do the work? Does that sound like someone who is just in it for the glory and the glitz?

The truth is, if it weren’t for Hardaway’s iconic stature, he might be characterized as a grinder, as a guy who worked his way up from the lowest levels of basketball on the strength of his relationship with the kids.

I think that this is going to work out for both Penny and Memphis, especially if Penny hires a staff that can help him with the intricacies of running a college basketball program.

PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND: Jevon Carter, West Virginia

So Carter’s numbers themselves were ridiculous this weekend. He had 21 points, eight assists, six steals and five boards in a first round win over Murray State. He followed that up with 28 points, five assists, five steals and four boards in a win over in-state rival Marshall to advance to the Sweet 16. For the weekend, he shot 54 percent from the floor and 63 percent from three.

But perhaps the more telling state in regards to what Carter did this weekend are the numbers that the Murray State and Marshall stars put up this weekend. Jon Elmore — whose averages of 23 points, seven assists and six boards matched what Markelle Fultz averaged a season ago — was 4-for-12 from the floor with eight turnovers in Marshall’s second round loss. Jonathan Stark, who entered the tournament averaging 22 points, had nine points on 1-for-12 shooting in Murray State’s first round loss.

KEENAN EVANS, Texas Tech: Evans averaged 22.5 points in this weekend’s two games, but what got him on this list was that he averaged 16.5 points in the second half of those two games, closing out a come-from-behind win against Stephen F. Austin with drive after drive and hitting the go-ahead three in the win over Florida.

ZACH NORVELL, Gonzaga: Not only did the Zags freshman averaged 21.5 points in two games — including a career-high 28 points, a career-high 12 boards, a career-high six threes and his first career double-double against Ohio State — but he hit the dagger in both of those games; a game-winner in the final minutes against UNCG and a three to put the Zags up six in the final two minutes against Ohio State.

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER, Kentucky: We spent the entire season talking about how Kentucky didn’t have a star this year. That may not be true anymore. SGA averaged 23 points, 7.0 boards, 6.5 assists and 3.5 steals as the Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 as the highest remaining seed in the South Region.

THE MARTIN TWINS, Nevada: Caleb was the hero in the come-from-behind win over Texas, doing bonkers in overtime, while Cody had 25 points, seven assists and six boards in the come-from-behind win over Cincinnati. But mostly they were both awesome all weekend.